It's time for the Capital Region to improve its bicycle infrastructure.

THE STAKES:

A regional effort to encourage more bicycling, especially among commuters, can lead to fitter residents and cleaner air.

Friday is National Bike to Work Day, and with it comes an awareness that the Capital Region is doing a pretty poor job of encouraging this form of commuting, passing up the recreational and health benefits that would come with an improved bicycle infrastructure.

In the most recent census report to look at commuting, the ranks of bicyclists grew by 60 percent nationally in the past decade, but the Capital Region and New York remain stubbornly in the bottom tier of states with two-wheel commuting communities.

That's a waste.

Atop the list of communities and states where bicycle commuting has taken off is a place that's more fit and has cleaner air than here: Portland, Ore.

With 319 miles of bikeways, Portland can boast that 6 percent of its commuters bicycle to work, up from 1.8 percent in 2000. The American Lung Association's 2014 State of the Air report cited Portland as one of the "25 cleanest cities" for particle pollution. The metro area has been listed many times as a "fit" place, including recently by the American College of Sports Medicine.

This commuting shift didn't just happen. That city, which has a population roughly equal to the Capital Region's, drafted its first Bicycle Master Plan in 1973, according to a report from Portland State University. That plan was updated in 1996 and has purposefully driven investment in bicycle infrastructure, including dedicated bike lanes, bicyclist education, improved bridge access, bike parking rules, and bicycle racks seemingly everywhere. Under a new plan, 25 percent of all daily trips would be made by bicycles by 2030.

That could happen here. But our leaders need to steer a conversation that collects broad-based input and support.

We shouldn't have situations like the $12 million redevelopment of the Congress Street bridge in Troy, which included nothing for bicyclists. A similar outcome is shaping up in the replacement of the Livingston Avenue railroad bridge in Albany. The High Speed Rail Empire Corridor draft environmental impact statement, which includes replacing the bridge, doesn't even mention the potential for a pedestrian and bike path.

Meanwhile, too many of the region's roads have virtually no shoulders on which cyclists can safely ride, let alone bike lanes.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Some communities like Albany have bicycle master plans, and the Capital District Transportation Committee has a "bicycle pedestrian task force." This kind of attention needs to be broader and deeper across the region.

We look to next week's Walk-Bike New York gathering of leading voices in the effort to create "walkable and bikeable communities." And we look to a day, soon, when planners think as much about bikes as they do about cars.